Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a mobile information terminal having a touch panel device that can detect a touch or proximity of an external conductor such as a finger of a user by detecting, for example, a change in capacitance or the like.
Description of Related Art
Conventional mobile information terminals having a touch panel display a virtual keyboard and numeric keypad on a display screen. These mobile information terminals can recognize a key selected by the user from the keyboard or numeric keypad by detecting a user input made through the touch panel.
FIG. 50 is a schematic front view of a mobile information terminal 101 that has a display panel 102, the screen size of which is large to a certain extent, for example, five inches or more, and also has a touch panel 104, the panel size of which adapts to the screen size. In the example in FIG. 50, one of the shorter edges of the rectangular case of the mobile information terminal 101 is held with the right hand 105R of the user and the other edge is held with the left hand 105L.
When an external conductor such as a finger of a user touches or is brought close to the touch panel 104 of the mobile information terminal 101, the touch panel 104 can detect a change in capacitance, which is caused when the conductor touches or is brought close to the touch panel 104, and can also detect a position at which the capacitance has changed as coordinates. The display panel 102 can display various types of information on its screen; in the example in FIG. 50, a virtual keyboard such as a so-called QWERTY keyboard 103Q is displayed. Although the touch panel 104 can detect not only the touch of the external conductor but also its proximity; only the representation of the touch will be used in the description below to avoid explanation from becoming complex.
When, in the example in FIG. 50, the touch of the user's finger or the like is detected by the display panel 102, if the position at which the touch has been detected corresponds to a key button of the keyboard 103Q, the mobile information terminal 101 recognizes that the key button has been pressed (selected) by the user. That is, the mobile information terminal 101 displays the virtual keyboard 103Q on the display panel 102; when the user touches a desired key button on the keyboard 103Q, the mobile information terminal 101 accepts a character or the like corresponding to the key button.
As another example of a mobile information terminal having a display panel and a touch panel, an information processing device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-27183 (PTL 1) is known. The information processing device described in this patent literature has a substantially rectangular, flat case having a main front part, the size of the case being such that it can be held with one hand. The case of the information processing device has a first side and a second side that are disposed across the main front part. In addition, the main front part of the information processing device has a full-screen liquid crystal touch panel formed by a liquid crystal display and a capacitive touch panel, and the first and second sides each have a sheet-shaped pressure-sensitive sensor that can senses a pressure distribution made by a user's finger on a planar area. The sheet-shaped pressure-sensitive sensors disposed on the first and second sides are provided to detect whether the information processing device is held with the right hand or left hand of the user. If the information processing device detects, from an output from the relevant pressure-sensitive sensor, that the user is holding the device with the right hand, the information processing device displays a user interface optimized for the right hand; if the information processing device detects that the user is holding the device with the left hand, the information processing device displays a user interface optimized for the left hand. The pressure-sensitive sensor may be replaced with a photosensor.